Re: wheeeeeeeee... Re: more middle class Re: ruling class subjectivity, was: Re: AUT: a rejuvenated communist

["Chris Wright" <cwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

See my comment below, I only included this so people knew what I was talking
about.
> > Maybe it helps to think in terms of the state.  The
> > state is one form of
> > shape of the anatagonism between capital and labor,
> > a mode of existence of
> > the anatagonism of labor and capital which exists as
> > the product of the
> > separation of economic and political, but also as
> > the means by which capital
> > exerts its domination over labor, a historically
> > necessary offshoot of the
> > class struggle (that is a brutal reduction of the
> > state dreivation debate
> > and Holloway and Bonefeld's analysis.)  Now I am
> > just thinking off the top
> > of my head, but what if the middle class
> > (encompassing capital's
> > functionaries and the traditional petty bourgeoisie)
> > is really the same sort
> > of social formation.  Created by the class struggle,
> > but also starting from
> > the pre-existing small proprietors (who have become
> > less and less of a
> > factor), this layer is necessary because capital
> > cannot run its own affairs
> > directly (whether management or repression.)  Like
> > the state, it is not
> > capital as such, but an offshoot of the attempt to
> > reign in insurgent,
> > insubordinate labor and at the same time, of the
> > reified relation between
> > ownership of capital and management or economics and
> > politics.  The
> > bureaucratization of an expanding state (driven by
> > the struggle in the
> > 1930's, as well as by an expanded role in the
> > supprssion of international
> > labor inthe post-WWII period) and of expanding
> > corporations (having to meet
> > needs like HR depts., multi-levels of managers,
> > security forces, R&D
> > departments, and thousands and thousands of
> > employees all over the country
> > and world) becomes the generator of this radically
> > reconfigured social layer
> > known as the middle class.  This might offer an
> > explanation of why the
> > middle class has become more and more managers in
> > the corporate bureaucracy
> > and in the state apparatus, and less and less small
> > owners (though capital
> > has a place for petty proprietors where the profits
> > are too small for
> > capital proper, and also in the speculation craze of
> > the last 18 years.)
> > The answer may be both historical and theoretical at
> > the same time, which is
> > my opinion generally, because capital's 'laws' and
> > relations are the
> > expression of particular outcomes of particular,
> > historical class struggles
> > (in this sense, structures are nothing more than the
> > reification of the
> > results of particular struggles, the fetishized form
> > of a social relation of
> > struggle, "the afterlife of a once living struggle",
> > if you will.)  In a
> > sense, the so-called middle class may be a social
> > relation itself derived
> > from the 'solutions' to the class conflict by
> > capital.  Wouldn't it be novel
> > if capital created social classes which are not
> > directly in the
> > capital-labor relationship, but a by-product of the
> > struggle in that
> > relation, and therefore an inherently unstable,
> > amorphous social relation
> > with no clear boundaries?
>
> this is really interesting... and is something i could
> maybe agree with... i'll have to think on it more...

commie00, Sean, Dan, Harald, thanks for the comments and discussion,  If I
have hit on something interesting with this above idea, i think it is really
a collective product of this discussion.  I hope this proves fruitful.  If
it does, I thank all of you for the critical process that let me get here.
I hope I don;t disappoint anyone with where I will be trying to take this
(it made up a major part of my additions to my piece on computerization and
class composition today, which is now 30 pages without reasearch beyond my
own experiences over the lat 6-7 years in this part of the working class.
In fact, this whole discussion has been very useful for my piece.  I bet
noone would have guessed I would write something that long, eh?  Heheh.

I'm sure more things will come up.  Talk to you all soon enough.
chris



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